


On the Wings of the Devil

by keepitdreamin



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 03:52:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13673712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepitdreamin/pseuds/keepitdreamin
Summary: "Sometimes though, Matt will smell like fire and smoke, and eventually, as they become closer friends, Matt stops being worried so much around Foggy. When he laughs, there’s a glimpse of too sharp teeth, and sometimes, when they’re studying and Foggy’s let his coffee go cold, Matt will take pity on him and will hold it for a minute, heating it back up again."Magical Realism AU where Foggy's a siren and Matt's a dragon





	On the Wings of the Devil

**Author's Note:**

> hi please read the title like "in the arms of an angel" thank you

Columbia has the most inclusive housing policy of any of the colleges Foggy’s considered, and, ultimately, that is what makes the final decision between them and UChicago. While there are a few dorms labeled as “Human only” and “Creature only” as well as a multitude of speciality housing for different Creatures, the general housing contract has no rules about Humans and Creatures or different Creature types rooming together. They’d actually just changed this rule a few years ago after a large pushback from student activists on campus, and it’s now left up to the students to decide for themselves who they can live with without issue. Occasionally, this _does_ mean there are disputes when students misjudged their compatibility levels, which is typically between Creature types not Human-Creature roommates: one memorable occasion ended with a bed set on fire and a bathroom flooded. But mostly, everyone works together in harmony.

When Foggy fills out his own housing forms, he checks his Creature section—siren—and he leaves no preferences checked on anything else. Well, mostly. He did have to mark out any cat related creatures because of his allergies, but nothing due to compatibility. Foggy’s never had a problem with Humans or other Creatures before and he’s happy to room with any of them, as long as they turn out not to be jerks anyways.

* * *

 

“Wingman,” Foggy says, and Matt’s raised eyebrow and little mouth twitch is enough to confirm what Foggy vaguely remembers from the papers. Matt’s a dragon.

You wouldn’t know it to look at him though. Matt doesn’t really advertise his status, like, at _all_ . Unlike other dragons on campus, Matt keeps his wings retracted at all times, he doesn’t do any tricks with fire, and if he has horns (not all dragons do and Foggy doesn’t want to presume), he keeps those hidden as well. Foggy thinks he gets it, a little bit at least, that Matt already has so much attention on him being “the blind guy” that being “the blind _dragon_ ” would be too much. That and the fact that even in one of the oldest coeducational institutions in the country there’s _still_ discriminatory assholes, and Foggy’s not about to begrudge anyone who wants to avoid dealing with those guys (especially since Foggy’s own manifestation is pretty situation dependent and he can “pass” most of the time without even trying).

Sometimes though, Matt will smell like fire and smoke, and eventually, as they become closer friends, Matt stops being worried so much around Foggy. When he laughs, there’s a glimpse of too sharp teeth, and sometimes, when they’re studying and Foggy’s let his coffee go cold, Matt will take pity on him and will hold it for a minute, heating it back up again.

But Foggy still never sees his wings.

* * *

 

“I don’t like the water,” Matt admits one night. They’re both drunk and for the past 20 minutes, they’ve been exchanging little secrets (Foggy had just admitted to gluing his high school teachers drawers together his senior year because he was, ‘a giant dickhead’).

Foggy considers being offended (after all, Siren’s basically equal water), but settles on being amused. “You know, we live on an island, right Matty?”

Matt makes a face—his scrunchy _why’d you have to remind me_ face (notable past encounters include mention of a 12 page paper due the next day and that it was taco day in the dining hall)—and he says, “I try not to think about that honestly.”

Foggy laughs and throws an arm around Matt’s shoulders. “Well with me around, you don’t have to worry about any of the _scary, scary_ water.” Matt shoves at him good naturedly but settles there under Foggy’s arm and they keep drinking.

* * *

 

Matt talks about the devil a LOT which is what Foggy gets for being best friends with possibly the Most Catholic person Alive who isn’t literally the pope. He doesn’t realize it goes deeper than general Catholicism until—

“Wait... your _grandma_ said that to you?” Foggy coughs on his last inhale. “Jesus fucking Christ

Matt’s laugh is low and deep in the way it only gets when they get the _good_ fairy weed (something about dragon biology makes regular weed basically useless to them) and he looks more relaxed than ever, sinking low into Foggy’s bean bag chair. “Blasphemy,” he says idly and then laughs and blows a smoke ring that floats over to where Foggy’s sitting at the desk, bobbing for a second before dissipating.

“I’m not super up on my ‘church rules’ okay but you’d think telling your own grandkid they have the devil in them might be More of a no-no than saying ‘Jesus fucking Christ’,” Foggy points out.

Matt shrugs. “Yeah well she’s not wrong. I mean with a history of wild temper and then I was just the icing on the cake with my—“ he cuts himself off there abruptly and takes another drag.

Foggy studies him for a moment, the most relaxed he’s ever been and yet... the only hint of Dragon is in the cool smoke rings he’s blowing. Not even a little peek of teeth or horns or wings. And Foggy gets it, he thinks, even as it makes him feel a little sick to his stomach. Creature discrimination isn’t a rare occurrence by any means, but telling your own _grandchild_ they’re the devil because they’re a dragon? That’s some extreme bullshit.

Foggy gets out of his chair clumsily and goes to sit next to Matt on the beanbag. It’s not meant for two full grown men so there’s some definite squishing to get them to both fit and in the end they’re more cuddling than anything else. Foggy nudges Matt’s arm because he’s lost in his own brain and it’s Foggy’s duty as best friend to get him out again. “Come on hot stuff. Can you do any other shapes? Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Can you spell my name?”

Matt finally relaxes some tension that Foggy hadn’t even realized he was holding and smiles sideways at him. “Of course I can.”

* * *

 

It’s summer break, the _last_ summer break while they’re still in school (next summer they’re going to be _lawyers_ which is crazy because Foggy still feels like a kid most of the time), and Foggy’s dragged Matt out of the city to his parent’s house in the suburbs for a week. It’s doing them both good, decompressing after their finals and recharging before they have to get right back into their summer jobs and internships.

Today, Matt’s sitting cross legged on the edge of the pool, leaning back and enjoying the sunshine. He’s made a concession to the heat and is wearing swim trunks and a tank top, but he hasn’t actually set a toe in the water since they’ve arrived.

Foggy’s been swimming laps for a while, and he pops up next to him, shaking his hair and grinning when Matt makes a disgruntled _face_. “Come on in, the waters fine, and I promise I won’t bite!”

Matt rolls his eyes in disbelief, but he does uncross his legs and lets his feet dangle in the water. Foggy laughs and splashes him again but doesn’t try to get him fully in the water.

There’s a bonfire at the end of the week, and Foggy’s little cousins are delighted when Matt catches a spark and makes a little flame dance between his fingers.

* * *

 

Foggy knew. Foggy knew the moment he saw a photo of the Man in Black with his wings out. It was a cell phone photo, and the figure was too dark to confirm as him which was why he first saw it as an email attachment from a friend instead of on the news. The news gets it a few weeks later with better photos and speculation if this was the man or a copycat, but Foggy _knows_.

The man was standing on a roof; his body barely discernible in the dark, but his wings… his wings were outstretched and silhouetted against the moon. They’re large, made of shadows and fire and Foggy just _knew_ in that little pit of his stomach where he pushed away all the things he couldn’t really explain over the years, because it couldn’t be. It just _couldn’t._

 _But you’ve never seen his wings_ , a treacherous voice inside him whispered the next time he calls Matt and there’s no answer.

_You’ve never seen his wings._

* * *

 

After (after confirmation of what Foggy may have already known but didn’t want to accept; after watching his best friend bleeding out on the floor in front of him; after everything comes crumbling down around them), Foggy goes where he always goes when he’s stressed: the pool. He knows Matt knows where he’s going—the same way Foggy knows that Matt will go to his dad’s old gym or the church if he’s feeling particularly guilty—but it’s not about hiding from Matt, which apparently he could never do _anyway_. The pool near his apartment is Creature owned and operated, so that water Creatures can feel free to assume their natural forms without harming a human (they’re still capable of harming each other of course, but a mermaid’s teeth aren’t poison to other water Creatures and a siren’s call can’t compel them to drown).

Foggy grabs his trunks, goes to the pool, and sinks. He sits on the bottom of the pool, eyes open and hair flowing around him, for a long time. Near the beginning, other Creatures—a mermaid with the actual tail (all Foggy has is his gills and patchy scales), a Selkie (even without the sealskin, you can tell from the eyes)—swim by and tilt their heads with concern, clearly wondering if he’s okay. He waves them off and eventually he’s left alone in his corner. His screams are muffled at the bottom of the pool.The other Creatures don’t flinch, and no humans jump in to drown themselves, and Foggy screams and screams and screams.

* * *

 

Foggy gets more of a story after the whole Thing is over because Matt feels like he owes it to him. It’s not the abridged version this time, not the “we’re both in bad physical and or emotional states and I just need you to understand kind of” version he’d gotten that _disastrous_ day.

He tells Foggy about the accident, about how he lost his eyesight and gained these other... powers. About how his dad died. About how the nuns took him in reluctantly (“they didn’t really like the,” he flutters a wing weakly and half smiles like it’s a joke even as Foggy wants to throw up, “you know. They’re not like any other wings I’ve ever seen too... dark and off.” Foggy’s never wanted to punch a nun before but if he could go back in time to those ones who took in a fucking kid who just lost his father and made him _ashamed_ of being a dragon he would in a heartbeat). About how Stick found him and trained him and was just a real fucking douche about everything from Creatures to kids being kids (Foggy adds another name to his “to be punched list”). About how he came into the whole vigilante thing in the first place (Foggy knows Matt is sparing him details here specifically and he’s thankful but also horrified because Matt’s been holding all of this in for so long. How many terrible things did he hear before he could do anything about it?).

Matt talks for a long time. Tells him so much that if Foggy were to testify against him, he’d be going to jail for multiple life sentences. And Foggy listens and when he’s done listening he leaves. He doesn’t go to the pool this time, just sits out on a bench across the street from Matt’s building and if what Matt was saying was accurate, he absolutely knows he’s there. “I’m sorry,” he says quietly and then he just sits and aches.

* * *

 

It takes a while, quite a while actually, before Foggy’s ready to try and be friends with Matt again. Well, he thinks, they were still friends even when they weren’t talking outside of work, but he’s ready to try to be _okay_ again. So far, they’ve met up for coffee a few times, and they’ve now graduated up to dinner and Matt comes over to Foggy’s new apartment.

“You know,” Foggy says, cautiously after taking a breath (Matt had tilted his head before he’d even opened his mouth, still something Foggy needs to get used to), “you can… you can have your wings out, if you want.” This obviously wasn’t what Matt had been expecting and his mouth falls a little slack. Foggy waits nervously as a range of emotions flashes across Matt’s face, before settling on cautious.

“Okay.” Matt takes his own breath and when he lets it out, there’s the distinct smell of _fire smoke ash_ that sometimes hangs around Matt, and his wings unfurl from his back.

Foggy’s breath catches because _wow_ . The photos he’s seen don’t do them justice and when Matt was unconscious on the floor and spilling his guts still pretty injured he had _other_ things to worry about. They appear to be mostly solid but flicker and twist, bending light around and through them, unlike any other dragon’s wings he’s ever seen. _Beautiful._ They stretch and shiver and Foggy draws his eyes back to Matt’s face. Matt looks nervous, waiting for Foggy’s response and Foggy lets out a breath. “Well Murdock,” he says, “you ready to eat?” Matt’s wings flutter as if he’s laughing even as the corner of Matt’s lip only twitches.

Matt keeps his wings out for the rest of the night and Foggy keeps finding his eyes drawn back to them. It takes a while, about half an hour or so, for Matt to look truly comfortable with them out.

* * *

 

“You put,” Foggy laughs, gaspingly. He’s fuzzy and his head is spinning and Matt is there with his stupid, happy face, and for a moment Foggy can forget about danger as he laughs. “You put _Devil horns_ on your costume, Jesus _Christ_. How obvious are you trying to be?”

Matt makes a face at him as he takes another sip from his beer. “Shut up.”

Foggy just laughs harder. They’re drunk and _happy_ for the first time in a long time and Foggy just wants to _laugh_ and Matt’s an easy target. “Just _why???_ ”

Matt huffs in exasperation but he’s smiling--surprised and hesitant and relieved; he wants to laugh too--and shrugs. “Everyone’s always called me a devil so I figured, why not lean into it? You’re just lucky I talked Melvin out of a forked tail.” He grins all crooked and self satisfied and it makes Foggy’s insides all warm and fuzzy.

He shakes his head. “Oh my god, you’re such a _dork._ ” There’s too much affection there—Foggy’s an affectionate guy naturally and doubly so when he’s drunk—said too softly and sincerely especially now that he knows Matt gets 8 different levels of what it means and now that Foggy _knows_ Matt knows they can’t just pretend it never happened like before. He should maybe be worried about that, about how easily he slips back into loving Matt even after all the betrayal, but that’s a problem for later him. Right now he just takes another drink and declares, “I like it. Even if it _is_ a little on the nose. Or the _horns_ rather.”

Matt laughs and he leans against Foggy’s shoulder, and Foggy loves him so much,

There’s a moment, when they leave the bar and wait on the corner for an Uber (Matt might be able to echolocate his way home but Foggy doesn’t trust himself to not trip over his own feet and break his nose), where everything is still and silent and Foggy finds himself looking at him, just really _looks_ for a moment, studying the slope of his nose and the jut of his jaw, and says before he can think, “Hey.” And when Matt turns his head questioningly, Foggy says, “You’re not a devil, Matty. I don’t care what anybody else says; you’re the best person I know.” Foggy’s calm, heart beating steady and he hopes Matt can tell how truthful he’s being. Matt’s mouth falls open a bit in a small breathy “ _oh_ ” and his face is open and clear and he wavers a little to tilt forwards towards Foggy and then… the car pulls up.

The ride is quiet but not awkwardly so. When they reach Foggy's apartment before he can move to get out, Matt reaches across and pulls him into a tight hug, burying his face into Foggy’s hair. Foggy gets the distinct feeling he’s been sniffed. He hugs back as tight as he can but has to, reluctantly, let go a moment later. "Goodnight Matt."

"Night Foggy."

* * *

 

For Foggy’s parents 50th anniversary party, they plan a big weekend and of course Matt is invited along. They head out on Thursday night, taking the train which Matt hates but is admittedly better than spending twice as many hours cooped up in a car. They’re in this weird stage of dancing around feelings, never quite acknowledging them but they’re both aware they’re there and real. Foggy’s reached this zen kind of state about it, knowing that it’s going to happen and it’s best not to push it.

Friday and Saturday are the big party and to do with the friends and large extended family, but Sunday is just the core family: his parents; Candace, her husband George and their kid Tiffany; Gina and her date mate Roly; Rebekka and the twins Ellie and Jake; and Foggy and Matt. They spend the day just hanging out around the house. For lunch they do a little barbeque in the backyard and hang out in the pool and the garden.

Matt’s relaxing on a pool chair beside Foggy when Ellie comes up, sits cross legged on the end of the chair and stares at him. “Mama says you’re a dragon,” she says forthright.

Matt blinks for a moment in surprise before nodding. “I am, yeah.”

“So am I!” She bounces excitedly for a second with a big grin before pausing to tilt her head curiously. “But… where are your wings?”

Matt goes still for a moment, but before Foggy can enact his ultimate distraction plan, he answers. “Well… I usually choose to keep them away when I’m around other people.”

She considers this, brows furrowed before shaking her head. “But we aren’t _people_ . We’re _family_. If you can’t have them out around family when can you?”

Matt tilts his head, which Foggy reads as the equivalent of him staring around the small gathered group of people. Finally, he smiles at her. “You know, that’s a good point. I haven’t stretched out in the sun in a while.” He tilts his head toward Foggy and Foggy nods slightly and gives a discreet thumbs up. Matt’s grin widens and he leans forward a bit, the next moment the wings have appeared, spreading out on either side of him, shaking shimmering shadows and fire, lit beautifully in the sunlight. Matt tilts his head at her in question.

Ellie nods approvingly. “ _Mine_ are green, but yours are very pretty too.” Then her brother yells after her and she gets up and runs off. Foggy laughs and Matt joins in. When the corner of Matt’s wing brushes Foggy’s arm, Foggy reaches out a little and lets the back of his hand nudge against it in return. (Matt’s smile is brighter than the sunlight.)

The family notices but they don’t comment. Foggy’s mom keeps smiling when she looks over and she nods happy when she catches Foggy’s eyes.

 

Later in the afternoon, nearing sunset, they’re the only two in the pool area. Everyone else is either inside looking st old photo albums or out picking up the pizza for dinner. Foggy’s diving into the pool when he has _serious_ deja vu: it’s almost a repeat of the last summer they’d spent here, with Matt sitting on the edge of the pool, feet and nothing else in the water, but this time with wings out and splayed behind him soaking up the sunlight. Foggy pops up beside him and Matt smiles, tilts his head considering something. “What’s up Matty?” Foggy asks pushing his hair back and out of his face.

Matt’s hand twitches, as do his wings, towards Foggy. “Could I...” He trails off and bites his lip. Foggy waits till Matt says finally, “You have _scales_. Could I maybe feel them?”

Foggy blinks and then grins. “Sure, not like it’ll be the first time you’ve felt up my face will it?” Matt grins and his wings tremble with it. Matt leans forward and Foggy thinks, you know what? and he reaches out so his hands are on either side of Matt’s spread knees and he pushes up settling between his legs. Matt goes still at that except for the flutter of his wings, then he lets out a breath and reaches carefully with a hand. Matt’s skin is sun warm and dry when it touches Foggy’s chin and it makes him shiver just a little. Matt pauses but Foggy doesn’t tell him to stop so he continues on.

It’s like when Matt explored his face back in college and also not like it at all because this time Foggy knows Matt can hear his heartbeat racing, can probably taste the attraction or whatever, and he _doesn’t stop._ Matt’s gentle when his fingers come across scales, tracing them lightly. One hand brushes down to Foggy’s neck and Foggy giggles. “Sorry,” he says, “around the gills is ticklish.” Matt’s lips quirk up in a smile and he’s careful to not tickle him too badly.

Finally, they find themselves with one of Matt’s hands curled around the back of Foggy’s neck and the other cupping Foggy’s chin, thumb running in a continual motion across the line of scales on Foggy’s cheek. Foggy has water lapping around his stomach and Matt smells like fire and he’s so _in love_ . “ _Matt,”_ he says softly, “can I kiss you?” Matt’s wings flutter as he nods. Foggy pushes himself upward and leans forward and when their lips meet it’s everything Foggy has ever imagine and more.

They pull apart at the sound of a laugh from the other side of the pool. Foggy looks over and Candace is holding up her phone and smiling beatifically at them. Matt laughs and Foggy flips her off then presses a kiss to the corner of Matt’s lips before slipping back into the water.

(She sends Foggy the photo later, and Foggy puts it in a place of honor in his apartment and eventually _their_ apartment.)

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [tumblr!](http://www.keepitdreamin.tumblr.com)


End file.
